Montenegro Bus Crash Leaves 18 Romanians Dead, 29 Injured

A bus crash killed 18 Romanian tourists and injured 29 seriously after the vehicle skidded off a main road in Montenegro.

The bus, enroute between Montenegro’s capital Podgorica and Kolasin, in the north region of the former Yugoslav republic, slid off the road around 5 p.m. yesterday and crashed about 50 meters into a gorge near the Moraca river, the government said today in an e-mailed statement.

Seven injured passengers are currently being treated in the intensive care unit of Podgorica’s Clinical Centre, four of which are in critical condition, according to a report by the Podgorica Clinical Centre. The police are still investigating the cause of the accident, it said.

(source Bloomberg)

A bus crash killed 18 Romanian tourists and injured 29 seriously after the vehicle skidded off a main road in Montenegro.

The bus, enroute between Montenegro’s capital Podgorica and Kolasin, in the north region of the former Yugoslav republic, slid off the road around 5 p.m. yesterday and crashed about 50 meters into a gorge near the Moraca river, the government said today in an e-mailed statement.

Seven injured passengers are currently being treated in the intensive care unit of Podgorica’s Clinical Centre, four of which are in critical condition, according to a report by the Podgorica Clinical Centre. The police are still investigating the cause of the accident, it said.

(source Bloomberg)

A bus crash killed 18 Romanian tourists and injured 29 seriously after the vehicle skidded off a main road in Montenegro.

The bus, enroute between Montenegro’s capital Podgorica and Kolasin, in the north region of the former Yugoslav republic, slid off the road around 5 p.m. yesterday and crashed about 50 meters into a gorge near the Moraca river, the government said today in an e-mailed statement.

Seven injured passengers are currently being treated in the intensive care unit of Podgorica’s Clinical Centre, four of which are in critical condition, according to a report by the Podgorica Clinical Centre. The police are still investigating the cause of the accident, it said.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano acknowledged to a Senate panel Tuesday that her department was aware of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s trip to Russia in 2012.

Tsarnaev, who died after a shootout with police Friday, took the trip a few months after the FBI interviewed him because of a tip from the Russian government that he was linked to radical Islamist groups.

The FBI was not aware of Tsarnaev’s six-month trip to a volatile region of Russia plagued by Islamist violence because an airline misspelled his name on a flight manifesto shared with the U.S. government.Napolitano conceded to Republicans Tuesday that her department was aware of Tsarnaev’s departure from the country, but said the FBI had closed its investigation of him when he returned.“Yes, the system pinged when he was leaving the United States. By the time he returned, all investigations — the matter had been closed,” Napolitano told lawmakers.Napolitano’s response raises questions about the cooperation between the FBI and the Homeland Security Department in tracking legal residents suspected of links to terrorist groups.Tsarnaev’s name was entered in the Treasury Enforcement Communications System when the FBI interviewed him based on intelligence from the Russian government.After the Boston bombing, some conservative lawmakers have urged the Senate to delay efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that more time is needed to study national security implications.But Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of the authors of immigration reform legislation, said the bill would reduce the chances of law enforcement officials missing a trip by a person suspected of links to terrorist activities by phasing out manual inputs of travel data.“Under our bill, everything would have to be passport or machine read so that type of mistake could not occur. So if our bill were law, it’s a pretty safe guess that the authorities would have known that Tsarnaev left to go to Russia and when he came back,” said Schumer.Napolitano reiterated there was “a ping on the outbound” alerting her department of Tsarnaev’s departure.

(source The Hill, photo AP.org)

P.M. David Cameron's Statement

"Today is a truly sad day for our country. We've lost a great Prime Minister, a great leader, a great Briton. As our first woman Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds, and the real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn't just lead our country, she saved our country. I believe she'll go down as the greatest British peacetime Prime Minister.

"Today most of all we should think of her family. We've lost somebody great in our public life but they've lost a much loved mother and grandmother and we should think of them today. Her legacy will be the fact that she served her country so well and that she saved our country, and that she showed immense courage in doing so, and people will be learning about what she did and her achievements in decades, probably centuries to come. That's her legacy, but today we must also think of her family." Communications teamBritish Embassy Bucharest tw BpB- )

The Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion was the worst peacetime military accident ever recorded in Cyprus. The incident occurred on 11 July 2011, when 98 containers of explosives that had been stored for 2½ years on the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base near Zygi detonated.

The resulting explosion killed 13 people, 12 of them immediately, including Captain Andreas Ioannides, the Commander of the Navy (Cyprus’s most senior naval officer), and the base commander, Lambros Lambrou. Also killed were four navy personnel and six firefighters, while a further 62 people were injured. The explosion severely damaged hundreds of nearby buildings including all of the buildings in Zygi the island’s largest power station, responsible for supplying over half of Cyprus’ electricity. As a result, much of Cyprus was without power in the immediate aftermath of the incident and rolling blackouts were initiated in order to conserve supplies. (Source:investmentwatchblog)

In South Africa, the murder rate in women aged over 14 years (female homicide) was substantially lower in 2009 than in 1999, but the rate of murder by an intimate partner (intimate femicide—defined as the killing of women by a current or ex-husband/boyfriend, same sex partner or a rejected would be lover) did not decline at the same rate over the two time periods, according to a study by South African researchers published in this week’s PLOS Medicine.

The researchers, led by Naeemah Abrahams from the Medical Research Council in South Africa, also point out that the 2009 female homicide rate in South Africa was still five times higher than the global rate of this crime.

The researchers reached these conclusions by analysing information on female homicide victims, aged 14 years and older, in 2009, from mortuary registers and databases, autopsy reports and also from police interviews and then compared these results with a similar study they had conducted in 1999.

The authors found that in 2009, there were 930 female homicides compared to 1052 in 1999 (giving an overall female homicide rate per hundred thousand women of 12.9 in 2009 compared to 24.7 in 1999). Although there was some evidence of a decrease in the rate of female murder by an intimate partner—8.8 per hundred thousand women in 1999 compared to 5.6 in 2009—this decrease was not statistically significant.

Importantly, the authors also found that there was a significant decrease in the rate of fatal shootings (female gun homicides), 7.5 per hundred thousand women in 1999 compared to 2.5 in 2009 and that this finding was similar when perpetrated by partners and non-partners (intimate and non-intimate gun homicides).

Unfortunately, the authors found that the chance of conviction of perpetrators of intimate femicide was unchanged over the two time points and the chance of convictions of perpetrators of non-intimate femicides had significantly decreased.

The authors say: “This study was conducted in order to investigate whether there were changes in the prevalence and patterns of female homicide in 2009 compared to 1999 and we had a particular interest in looking for changes that could have indicated success from the new gender-based violence legislation and perhaps accompanying prevention programming at a national level.”

They continue: “There was evidence of change that we suggest is probably consequent on gun control legislation, and we did show difference in female homicide rates overall, but there was a lack of evidence that could be viewed as impact of gender-based violence policies and programming.”

The authors add: “Although the exact factors driving the decrease in female homicide overall are unknown, it does appear that a renewed commitment from Government [of South Africa] to develop policy driven prevention interventions is needed to impact on the gender-related proportion of female homicide, as well as reliable data to monitor trends.”

Since 1990, more than 10,000 Colombians have been either wounded or killed by landmines, of which 982 have been children, according to latest government figures.

The government says Colombia’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is responsible for planting the majority of landmines and unexploded ordnance littered across the country, mostly in rural areas.

Using a tin of tuna and costing just $5 each, the rebels often use homemade mines as a cheap weapon of war to repel government troops. The drug-running FARC rebels also plant mines in and around coca fields - the raw ingredient of cocaine – to protect their valuable crop.

DIFFICULT TERRAIN

Colombia's challenging terrain makes mine clearance slow going.

“The terrain is going to be difficult. It’s mountainous and jungle. The daily clearance rate will be slow because of the terrain. It’s slow, but it’s essential work and it’s possible,” said Salisbury.

Another big challenge facing demining operations in Colombia is a lack of information about where and how many mines are planted, meaning it is impossible to gauge the size of Colombia's mine problem.

As a signatory of the Mine Ban Treaty, Colombia has agreed to clear the country of mines by 2021.

“It’s way too early to say whether that obligation can be met and how much terrain remains to be cleared,” said Salisbury.

In recent years, demining in Colombia has focused on clearing all mines placed by the state military around 35 of their bases to hold off rebel groups.

Humanitarian demining in Colombia is still in its early stages, and is largely confined to areas where government troops have secure territorial control.

Despite these challenges, the Colombian government is looking to step up demining operations across the country.

OBSTACLE TO DEVELOPMENT

Under historic laws passed in 2011, the government hopes to return millions of hectares of land stolen by armed groups to their rightful owners and to encourage the return of up to 4 million Colombians forced off their land because of the conflict.

However, a key obstacle in giving back stolen land and encouraging uprooted families to return is that some of it remains mined and therefore unsafe for people to return to.

“Both danger and perception of mines is a major obstacle in Colombia’s development. A government plan that envisions the return of IDPs (internally displaced persons) will have to take into account demining,” Salisbury said.

In addition, with peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC rebels under way in the Cuban capital, Havana, the issue of demining is becoming ever more urgent.

If the two sides reach an agreement, demand for humanitarian demining operations run by the Colombian military and foreign and local NGOs will grow significantly. (text, foto: ReutersAlert)

Witnesses accuse Malian soldiers of torture and murder

In northern Mali, the country’s army frequently turns to torture and murder against people suspected of backing armed Islamist groups, according to doctors, Malian and French troops and an AFP journalist.

The scale of the phenomenon is difficult to assess. Are such rights abuses the outcome of a deliberate counter-insurgency strategy in desert territory where people are more favorable to the Islamists than in the south, or is torture the work of a few hotheads?

Colonel Saliou Maiga heads the paramilitary police in Gao, 1,200 kilometers northeast of the capital Bamako. He has recorded several cases of torture and believes that “soldiers, if they are not controlled by their officers, can do what they like.”

Some of these troops, often badly led, resort to alcohol and even to drugs. And while the Islamists have committed many atrocities - including amputations and stoning to death - in the name of strict Sharia law, these soldiers appear to have equally little respect for human life.

Several soldiers fired on unarmed people who were close to a clash with a small group of Islamists on February 10 in the center of Gao, one of the three main towns in the north, an AFP journalist saw.

The Malian and French military consider that civilian casualties that day, who included at least three dead and 15 wounded, were mainly victims of Mali’s ramshackle army, which is due to receive military training in coming months by a European Union mission of 500 troops.

Allegations of abuses by the army have increased since the beginning of French military intervention in the divided country on January 11, according to the media and non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights, as well as representatives of Mali's Arab and Tuareg communities.

Tuaregs and Arabs are sometimes known as “pale skins” by the majority black population. Their most prejudiced foes describe them as “all terrorists” and carry out, in some places, indiscriminate ethnic reprisals.

‘They treat their prisoners like dogs’

NGOs report “serious abuses,” including murders, in and around the western town of Biono, and a “series of summary executions” near the central towns of Mopti and Sevare, where there have also been reports of “sexual violence against women.” Witnesses also report similar actions near conflict zones.

An AFP journalist saw four “pale skins” in Gao and Timbuktu, 900 kilometers northeast of Bamako, who bore marks of torture, such as cigarette burns, traces of electric shock treatment and the use of acid, broken bones, bruises, bullet wounds and signs of strangulation, as well as sexual abuse.

In one town, which cannot be named at the request of the victims, who also asked for anonymity, one man said that after he was beaten up and burned with cigarettes, soldiers poured acid down his nostrils.

“It’s perhaps because I am Tamashek (Tuareg), I don’t see any other reason,” he told AFP.

“I know that he is not an Islamist,” said his doctor, who added that the victim was gravely ill because “the acid will lead to a shrinking of the esophagus, perhaps cancer.”

Elsewhere, a young pale-skinned woman lay on her sickbed with broken bones and several bullets in her body. She told AFP that soldiers had assaulted her. Her doctor said she had also been raped.

In Timbuktu, journalists of the US news agency Associated Press said that they had found two Arabs buried in the sand, close to the town. The family of one of the victims said he had been arrested by Malian soldiers two weeks earlier.

Since then, Malian troops several times went to see the AP correspondents, according to a French military source and a journalist. These sources said the soldiers made no physical threats, but used strong psychological pressure. The news agency has declined to comment. (source text, photo: AlArabya)

OPINION: India should Follow Arab Countries to Check the Crime Against women – By Mohammad Azeemull

Nothing shocked India with as much intensity of tragedy in its sixty five year of history as that of the brutal gang rape of a 23-year old girl and her subsequent death out of trauma.

The public reaction was extraordinarily exceptional. A part of the feeling of the nation was either numbed or dead. India could not decide how to come to terms with the news.

How a man in whose hand is trusted the protection of a daughter, the dignity of a sister and the care of a mother can turn out to be worse than a devil or a demon! Humanity, indeed, has shown the ugliest face of its shameful and disgraceful act!

The suspense about what would happen to the rape-victim came to an end with her shocking death. Her suffering, certainly, implies a symbolic struggle against atrocity a helpless girl in India goes throughout her life.

From womb till every stage of her breathing, a female lives under the constant fear of shame and humiliation.Through such violence as rape, trafficking, forced prostitution and sexual exploitation, the so-called civilized world seems to be a very terrible place for a woman to survive.

Cruelty against a girl is universal. It begins even before the very birth happens. Thousands fall victim to gender selective abortion i.e., boys being preferred to girls.

Islam took notice of this evil practice hundreds of years back. It regards female infanticide as adult murder. The Quranic injunction strictly forbids the evil practice: ‘When the infant girl, is buried alive, is questioned, for what crime she was killed.’ (Surah 81:8 – 9)

It further mentions: ‘You shall not kill your children for fear of want. We will provide for them and for you. To kill them is a grievous sin.’ (Surah 17:31)

India’s census commissioner once estimated that several million fetuses were aborted in the country in the last two decades because they were just female. Many more fall prey to sexual offenders, to ‘honour killings’ and to acid attacks, most often for refusing a suitor. A large number of them are burnt to death each year in ‘kitchen accidents’ because their dowry is seen as being too modest.

Still a shocking number of women are killed within their own walls through domestic violence. Sexual abuse of girls, often by relatives, though widespread, shrouds in taboo. Millions are trafficked while some are sold. The list of horror is endless. The picture is all too clear. India is confronted by the Slaughter of Eve, a systematic gendercide of tragic proportion.

According to World Health Organization, one woman in seven is the victim of rape or attempted rape during her life time in India.

While the facts are known and the figures are easily available to the government, the issue has never been taken seriously till the brutal gang-rape and death of a young girl that stirred the conscience of India. Violence against women should be considered as one of the great crimes of humanity. There should not be any room for complacency in face of rape and degradation of women.

Well! India does not have the dearth of legal documents that call for the eradication of atrocity against women, yet the nation has failed to stop the occurrence of crime against women particularly the frequency of rape incidents that happen even now every day in every city without a stop.

The innocent girls continue to fall victims to the lust of the criminals. India stands as a helpless bystander in view of the growing reports of rapes in the streets and outskirts of cities.

What is needed is the stronger commitment to form strict laws. India should not feel shy in following Islamic laws for harsher punishment to the rapists. Those found guilty to outrage the modesty of a girl must be stoned to death.

At the same time, society as a whole has responsibility to change attitudes and stereotypes that maintain women’s inferiority. It must also maintain a code of conduct in persuading its women not to mingle with men pointlessly. The bar culture must also come to an end along with culture of making girlfriends and boyfriends outside the sanctity of marriage.

It is time India broods about the safety of its women in the way Arab countries do. Islamic principles will certainly help it overcome the challenges the nation is facing at present to check the crime against women. azeemamu@gmail.com

Polish thieves steal van carrying 12 bodies

Polish police said Sunday they had arrested two men involved in stealing vans in Germany, including a vehicle which was carrying 12 bodies bound for a crematorium.

The two men, aged 25 and 27, were arrested are Polish nationals.

"We are sure that it is them who committed this crime, we have proof," Andrzej Borowiak, a police spokesman in Poznan in western Poland, told AFP. In all, three vehicles were stolen on Monday night at Hoppegarten in eastern Germany. Police later found one van belonging to a building firm.

Police were searching Sunday for the other vehicles including the van that was supposed to take the bodies to a crematorium in Meissen in Saxony, eastern Germany.

Two other people are also being sought. A reward of 5,000 zlotys (1,300 euros) has been offered for information leading to the arrest.

"Everything suggests that the vehicles are on Polish soil," Borowiak said. A Protestant pastor in Berlin has called on the thieves to return the bodies.

"Please, think how you would feel if you could not bury your mother or your father," Markus Droege said in an appeal reported by German newspapers. (AFP)